Background: Deep brain stimulation for Parkinson disease has been associated with psychiatric adverse effects including anxiety, depression, mania, psychosis, and suicide.
Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the safety of deep brain stimulation in a large Parkinson disease clinical practice.
Methods: Patients approved for surgery by the Mayo Clinic deep brain stimulation clinical committee participated in a 6-month prospective naturalistic follow-up study. In addition to the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale, stability and psychiatric safety were measured using the Beck Depression Inventory, Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, and Young Mania Rating scale. Outcomes were compared in patients with Parkinson disease who had a psychiatric history to those with no co-morbid psychiatric history.
Results: The study was completed by 49 of 54 patients. Statistically significant 6-month baseline to end-point improvement was found in motor and mood scales. No significant differences were found in psychiatric outcomes based on the presence or absence of psychiatric comorbidity.
Conclusions: Our study suggests that patients with Parkinson disease who have a history of psychiatric co-morbidity can safely respond to deep brain stimulation with no greater risk of psychiatric adverse effect occurrence. A multidisciplinary team approach, including careful psychiatric screening ensuring mood stabilization and psychiatric follow-up, should be viewed as standard of care to optimize the psychiatric outcome in the course of deep brain stimulation treatment.
© 2013 Published by The Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine on behalf of The Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine.